Hey, I’m back!! We had the Memorial Day holiday here in the states, so it was a loooooong (and gray!!) weekend for us. We didn’t really do anything too out of the ordinary, but it was nice to have the mister home with us for 3 whole days. He worked really hard last week to finish his homework by Thursday night so he could have 3 uninterrupted days with us to spend as a family, which is super rare and was really nice. We sort of vegged out on Friday night, and then Saturday morning we got up early and ushered ourselves out of the house to a local cycling shop so I could test-ride some bikes!! We’ve been talking about getting bikes for a while now, but it had been around 16 years since I had set butt in bike seat, so I was suuuper nervous and unsure of what style bike I would like. Turns out, grown-up-lady bikes are wayyyyy different from Huffy Puppy Love kids’ bikes – whodathunkit, right??? Anyway, I subjected the bored (and I’m sure tired/hungover/still slightly stoned/any combo of those things) employee that was unfortunate enough to greet us with a billion and one questions and then tested a grand total of TWO bikes. Really, I’m not the most fit person in the world, I have a bad knee (the cartilege in my right knee is nearly gone from a lifetime of stress and injuries… I’m 32… yay, my knee future should be AMAZING!!), and I know next to nothing about cycling or cycling culture, so it’s not like I was out to try the hardest-core mountain bikes or anything that cost 9 bajillion dollars (they had bikes there that cost more than my FIRST CAR…srsbzns, people.) Really, he was very nice and patient and while we didn’t buy anything Saturday morning, we spent the rest of the day looking at the bike I liked best online, comparing prices, and checking it out on resale sites to see if we could find a used one. The overall impression we came away with was that the bike priced competitively at the shop we visited, it holds its resale value VERY well – always a good thing – and it comes in a cheeky coral color that is much cuter than the black one I rode at the shop. I was not set on any one color, being more concerned with the way the bike performed and the value for our money, but knowing I could get an adorable color was really just cake. So we ended up trekking back out there on Sunday morning to order the coral (they didn’t have it on hand and it will take ten days…TEN DAYS, to arrive and be assembled) and pick out a helmet. He gave us 50% off on the helmet – I’m not sure whether that’s standard practice, but I asked and he said yes, so we went with it. I am so beyond excited to be getting a bike (and a trailer to pull the kiddo!) so I can be more active during the week, but let me tell you: I feel like a total doofus in that helmet. I always felt goofy wearing a helmet when I was a kid, and things have not changed. I feel so dang goofy. But. I am aware of the need to be safe, and I definitely want to set a good example for the kid, so she can’t call me a hypocrite when I tell her to wear hers someday. So I will wear it and the whole time I will be cringing.
Beyond that, it was a rather lazy weekend, which are always nice to have sometimes. So that’s my news of the day. Crochet-wise, I’m still working on the little project I picked up middle of last week, but that’s only because I haven’t been doing much crochet at all. The finishing touches are the only thing left, and the pattern I planned for didn’t work the way I wanted it to, so I had to look around. I need a few little crochet flowers, and I had a Teri Crews pattern from Craftsy in mind, but I found it was too much trouble for the yarn and hook I’m using. I could not get the center down, and once I did, the petals didn’t come out the way I wanted. So it was back to the drawing board to look around for some new ones. And in the looking around, I came across many more patterns than I would ever need for my dinky project, so I decided to do a pattern roundup here, to share all the wonderful flower motifs I came across!! Here are my faves!!
CROCHET FLOWERS PATTERN ROUNDUP
Linky links below. As usual, if any of the links aren’t up to snuff, let me know and I’ll fix it up!
1. Easy Rose Crochet Pattern from Skip to My Lou – I LOVE these. I have been seeing crohcet roses all over Reddit and Instagram, and this pattern is exactly what I am looking for – Simple, easy to follow, and repetitive. I absolutely plan to make a few of these with embroidery thread for mitt embellishment, headbands, and tiny rose motifs.
2. Button-center Simple Flowers from Craft and Fun – The intro and photo tutorial is in Italian, but if you scroll down to the bottom you will find English instructions. Super easy to get the hang of, and if you’re like me and have ten million random buttons, this is an appealing project because you can de-stash and prove to your partner that you are NOT a hoarder. Yep, totally not a craft-supplies-hoarder, see?
3. Mini Flower Bunting from Silly Old Suitcases – I. Love. This. I was just thinking the other day that I should do some flower bunting for my daughter’s upcoming 4th birthday party and then this popped up in my search for new flower designs. While it’s not a new design necessarily (granny flowers are pretty dominant motifs lately), it is a darling way to use them. I will definitely be making some of these in the very near future!!
4. Crochet Flower Patterns from Mollie Makes – Okay, you can call me a “pinterest mom”, a “crafty mommy”, or a “uppity PNW modern-hipster” (all things I’ve been called in real life, by the way…) when it comes to my decor style or the things I like to create, but I don’t really care much. Which means I’m open about my love of most things Mollie Makes. I follow their boards on Pinterest, and I’ve purchased a couple (digital) issues of their magazine. I like that it caters to busy, creative people and that they focus on upcycling and “easy” projects. That said, these Mollie Makes flowers are simple, colorful, easy, and modern, which means I love them. And this is the first pattern I chose to complete my newest project.
5. Crochet Floral Bathing Suit on Kipi by Marjorie – This isn’t technically a DIY since the blogger bought the crochet flowers pre-made from HCK Crafts on Etsy, but it was so darn pretty that I had to include it. Marjorie designed this bathing suit for a feature on Buzzfeed, and if there’s one site on the internet that I absolutely abhor, it’s Buzzfeed, so I did not go to the link in her blog. Add that to the ever-growing list of things I just CAN’T, I don’t care, but I dislike Buzzfeed’s tendency to generate something from other people’s somethings (I say as I put together a roudup of other people’s somethings. I get the irony, I’ll be wearing the cone of hypocrisy if you need me.) Regardless of my feelings about Buzzfeed and hypocrisy, the suit Marjorie designed gave me major inspiration, and her blog is simply stunning. I encourage everyone to go check it out – it’s truly lovely.
6. Crochet Blackberry Flower by My Hobby is Crochet – If you follow me on Instagram – plug real quick!! – then you know I already made one of these. I wasn’t totally happy with the first one, because I was using embroidery floss for the center and some #3 white cotton from Lion Brand Bon-Bons pack (side note: They say it’s #3, but I feel like it might a small #3, because it’s only slightly thicker than DMC floss. I still love it, though) but I made another one this morning holding 2 strands of floss and I love that one muuuuuuch more. It’s even got me hunting around for a little pattern to make a couple matching blackberries. Super cute, super easy, sophisticated and delicate results. Doooo eeeeet…
7. Giant Daffodil Pattern from Lara Messer – This pattern is in UK terms and she included a converter, but I’m not sure if she actually converted the terms to US terms or if she just wrote out what the abbreviations are, which would be a key rather than a converter. I am going to work up the pattern in the next couple days and then I will know for sure which it is, at which point I will update this post. Technicalities aside, these are so pretty!! I’m not sure what I would embellish with these yet, but at the very least, my daughter will have another addition to her ever-growing bouquet for her dollhouse!
8. Crochet Flowers by Things to Bake and Do – I had never visited this blog before, but the name alone is enough to make me love it. I love to bake things and I love to do things, so it’s like a perfect match!! Emma is a girl after my own heart, spending time on Ravelry looking for something, and then inevitably taking everything she’s seen and tweaking it until she comes up with something that fits her needs perfectly. She explained that she did that for these flowers, which is probably why I was drawn to them, considering I did the same thing, which led me to this post. I love the contrast in each flower, and I could see making a bunting or some little decorative thing out of these flowers as well. She hasn’t updated her blog in quite some time, but just looking through old posts is a treat, and I even found a couple recipes I want to try!
Happy Little Houses 